Abstract:

CollectionSpace is focused on developing solutions for museums and related heritage organizations that want to re-define the ways in which collections information is collected, managed, preserved, leveraged, and published. The CollectionSpace project partners are developing software with an open and extensible architecture, which is community-based and technologically robust. Our goal is to produce a suite of modules and services that will provide a stable, robust, authoritative, and flexible core of collections information from which interpretive materials and experiences - from printed catalogs to mobile gallery guides - may be efficiently developed, and that can serve as a cost-effective alternative to proprietary collections management systems for museums in need, regardless of size or scope.

The project began in 2008 with a series of workshops at which leading museum, library, and archive professionals worked together to provide insight and define community needs with regard to the design principles, functions, and features that will make the software widely effective. The workshops were followed by a two-year development phase, during which successive versions of the software have been developed, tested, and released for use.

The demo will take conference attendees through CollectionSpace 1.0, due for release in Summer 2010, and provide early views of CollectionSpace 2.0.

Session Info

• Type: Demo
• Keywords: open source, community source, collections management
• Relevance: CollectionSpace is an ambitious multi-institutional project dedicated to the development of an open-source, Web-based software application for collections management and information access. The use of CollectionSpace software will help bring core collections management procedures and related functionality into the Web 2+ era and has the potential to redefine the ways in which collections information is captured, managed, preserved, and leveraged. In service of this goal, CollectionSpace has introduced innovative approaches to application customization and extensibility. It also conforms to Web-based technical and design standards that Museum professionals increasingly expect.